Report: The End of the Internet Is Near..

[J.A. Terranson]

Yet more terror, gloom ,and doom for our beloved and apparently defunct
internet! [//Alif]

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http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,376871,00.html

Report: The End of the Internet Is Near

Sunday, July 06, 2008


The end of the Internet is near b and in less than three years,
according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The reason? More than 85% of the available addresses have already been
allocated and the OECD predicts we will have run out completely by early
2011.

These arenbt the normal web addresses you type into your browserbs
window, and which were recently freed up by Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers, the body responsible for allocating domain
names, to allow thousands of new internet domains ending in, for
instance, .newyork, .london or .xxx.

Beneath those names lie numerical Internet protocol addresses that
denote individual devices connected to the internet. These form the
foundation for all online communications, from e-mail and web pages to
voice chat and streaming video.

When the current IP address scheme was introduced in 1981, there were
fewer than 500 computers connected to the Internet. Its founders could
be forgiven for thinking that allowing for a potential 4 billion would
last for ever. However, less than 30 years later, the Internet is
rapidly running out. Every day thousands of new devices ranging from
massive web servers down to individual mobile phones go online and
gobble up more combinations and permutations.

bShortages are already acute in some regions,b says the OECD. bThe
situation is critical for the future of the internet economy.b

As addresses run dry we will all feel the pinch: Internet speeds will
drop and new connections and services will either be expensive or simply
impossible to obtain. The solution to the IP address shortage is an
upgrade to new addresses that can accommodate our hunger for online
connectivity. Such a system, called IPv6, was agreed more than a decade
ago, providing enough addresses for billions upon billions of devices as
well as improving Internet phone and video calls, and possibly even
helping to end e-mail spam.

Click here to read more at the Times of London.